What's interesting about the Giannis and the Warriors
That the Warriors want Giannis Antetokounmpo is not interesting. That they are AGAIN in a position to land an MVP-caliber player in his prime -- that's interesting.
Good morning. Let’s basketball.
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The talented Connor Letourneau of the San Francisco Chronicle sparked a flurry of action in the Land of The Warriors Are Going After Giannis Antetokounmpo by writing that Golden State is preparing for the MVP’s availability should Milwaukee not win the 2019-20 championship (assuming such a championship is available to be won) and should Antetokounmpo reject a super-max offer from the Bucks and that the shutdown helps the cause.
Some of the conversation is about how every team is and should be targeting Giannis. Some of the conversation is about the insatiable new greed of Warriorsland. Neither off-ramp is particularly novel or interesting. What’s interesting is that Golden State, through prior strokes of genius and continued strokes of luck, are actually in position here.
There is no question that competence played a major role in the Warriors becoming an elite franchise. I have been as skeptical of the Joe Lacob regime’s self-touting as anyone, and no one in the front office was around when Stephen Curry was drafted, to be clear.
But it took skill and competence to build around a budding Curry prior to 2015, and the front office deserves hella credit for landing the second best shooter of this generation late in the lottery and a perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate in the second round. The front office deserves credit for almost always getting the right veterans and youngsters leading up to 2016, and the front office deserves credit for leveraging insane amounts of luck with the salary cap spike to land Kevin Durant.
Is it lucky that the Warriors will end up with a top-5 pick in the draft despite having been to the last five NBA Finals series? Lucky’s not the right word given the Warriors are in this situation after an MVP-caliber star left in free agency, an All-Star two-way player tore his ACL and the two-time MVP suffered a broken wrist in October. It’s not really lucky for the Warriors to be in this situation. But there’s an unusual benefit to it: a very high draft pick.
The Warriors don’t get credit for that. But they do get credit for, in the lament of their lost season, flipping D’Angelo Russell for Andrew Wiggins and a potentially valuable 2021 draft pick. (The credit comes both from landing Russell in the Durant exit and in flipping him for a similar player but getting a real asset out of it.) The Warriors have two wildly valuable picks right now, one produced by something akin to luck (let’s call it “chance”) and one produced by the front office’s skill.
The Warriors’ successful recruitment of Durant in 2016 was genius because it matched good fortune with good management. The result was the best team in 20 years and two straight championships. The situation at the potential near-future outset of 2020 is very similar:
An MVP-caliber superstar, Giannis, could make himself available
The Warriors are an attractive landing spot for MVP-caliber superstar due to their quality, culture, locale and the sui generis nature of their incumbent superstar
Golden State has the assets to make a competitive trade offer (different but equivalent to having the surprise cap space for KD in ‘16)
Whether Giannis opts to leave Milwaukee (I tend to believe he’ll stay), and if that does happen whether he lists Golden State as a target (definitely, if he decides to leave), and if that does happen whether the Bucks rule out the Warriors entirely out of spite (plausible), and if any other team has a competitive offer (possible) — regardless of what happens, it’s truly something to behold that the Warriors are in this solid, hopeful position.
Yes, every team wants Giannis. But how many put themselves in position, through chance and skill, to actually do it?
The Most Wholesome After-Hack
Giannis’ online accounts — social media, banking, all of it — got hacked. The tweets that the hacker(s) put out as Giannis were so vile that everyone immediately acknowledged that this was an actual hack, not some crazy Twitter fingers by a celeb then covered up as a hack. Vile stuff.
Still, despite it clearly being an outside actor spreading the garbage, Giannis gave just about the most wholesome reaction imaginable.
People who actually say bad things should take note!
Links
Lovely piece from Leo Sepkowitz on how NBA parents are handling their kids’ needs right now. My favorite bit is either Thad Young’s family ordering progressively larger volcano kits, Boban Marjanovic’s rules for ethical GTA play or Nic Batum in awe of teachers being able to handle 10-15 kindergartners in a class (try 20-25).
Paolo Uggetti on the pandemic’s continued impact on American players abroad.
In defense of the Kings using gold in their color palette.
Seth Partnow and Dave DuFour on whether the Triangle offense is alive or dead in The Athletic. ($)
C.J. McCollum does not seem on board with the NBA allowing training facilities to open. Same with a bunch of anonymous team officials. Mike D’Antoni appears to be more comfortable. Henry Abbott, per usual, gets to the crux of the issue in a really thoughtful, thought-provoking way.
Mike Sykes on sneaker shops opening back up.
There’s a documentary series on the Sterling affair coming to Quibi on May 18 — it’s called Blackballed and you should be excited if you’re at all interested in the subject matter from a player perspective. That’s all I’ll say now. Here’s the trailer.
I have linked to Scott Hines’ Action Cookbook newsletter several times and it’s always the most-clicked piece in the newsletter when I do. I hope that’s the case today too! Scott is moving to a paid model to support his habit for lovely, funny writing on fatherhood, food, architecture and life. Highly recommended.
Be excellent to each other.
If Curry is the second best shooter of his generation, who are you saying bus first? Durant? (just curious not trying to be malicious)